A STUDY OF THE BOOK OF 1 CORINTHIANS
SERMON # 3
The
Foolishness Of The Cross
1 Cor. 1:18-25
A visiting preacher gave some advice to a
congregation about evangelism. He said, “Don’t tell people about the cross. That’s why
Franklin Graham’s crusades are no longer effective. Just tell them that God loves
them and has a plan for their lives.” The proof that allegedly his approach
was that he had a big church. But note his point. “The message of a crucified Jew as Savior is
ridiculous to the modern mind and an ineffective for church growth. So move on to
some-thing better. A crucified Messiah is stupid but promise them prosperity, give them
emotional experiences or build their self-esteem and they will fill the pews.”
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being
saved it is the power of God. (19) For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the
wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” (20) Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
(21) For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through
wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached
to save those who believe. (22) For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; (23) but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolish-ness, (24) but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks,
Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (25) Because the foolishness of God is wiser than
men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”
Three truths
drawn from this passage
First, The Cross Either Divides or Unifies Us. (1:18)
“For the message of the cross is
foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of
God.”
The message of the cross creates a
division within mankind. According to the word of God there are only two classes of people
in the world. The Gospel divides all of the people of the world into only two classes: the
lost and the saved. Therefore all distinctions of race, nationality, education are
insignificant.
First, the message of
the cross sounds foolish to those who are “perishing.” The word perish does not indicate extinction but
ruin not loss of being but loss of well-being.
The two classes of
people are based upon their evaluation of and relation to the Word of God. Paul says that
the cross is foolishness (moria) to those who are perishing. We get our word
moron from the Greek word here
translated foolishness.
Most of us having lived in for a long time,
if not been born in, the ‘Bible Belt’ of America have a hard time remembering
just how radical the message of the gospel is. We have heard the “Old, Old
Story” all of our lives, it doesn’t seem strange to us! But we need to
never forget that to a lost world the means that God has chosen to save mankind just does
not make sense on an intellectual basis. C. S. Lewis in his book “Mere Christianity” remarks, “That is one of the
reasons I believe Christianity. It is a religion you could not have guessed. If it offered
us just the kind of universe we had always expected, I should feel we were making it up.
But, in fact, it is not the sort of thing anyone would have made up. It has just the queer
twist about it that real things have.”
[C. S. Lewis. Mere Christianity. (New York: MacMillan Pub, 1952) pp. 47-48]
Secondly, the message of the cross is “the power of God”
to those who “are being
saved.” But to those who are being saved it is the power of God. The word
of the cross is not merely good advice, nor a message about the power of God it is the
power of God. The proof of the message of the cross is not that it makes sense but that it
has power, it works.
There is a wonderful parallel in the Old
Testament. In Numbers 21 the children of Israel are in trouble again – for murmuring
and complaining. God sends judgment upon them in the form of “fiery serpents”
(Num 21:6). Suddenly they are crying out for deliverance from the snakes. There is a
marvelous lesson that applies here. Their means of escape from their sin was - to look at
the brazen serpent, and they are to look in faith. In fact, they do not have faith they
will not even look. You can well imagine some of people saying that this was just plain
nonsense. They would want a more comprehensive plan, they want something more tangible
than just turning around to look at a serpent of brass. But, of course, if a man would not
turn to look at the serpent of brass, he would die. Jesus makes the application in
Nicodemus John 3:14, “And as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: (15) That whoever
believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. (16) For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life” (John 3:14–16). How was the Son of man lifted up? Well he
was lifted up on the cross.
But the problem for the Jew was that they
simply could not imagine a crucified Messiah. It is difficult for us to understand what
crucifixion meant to the Jews. We’ve sanitized the cross and domesticated it. We
gold-plate it and wear it around our necks. We put it on earrings and on our stationery.
We hang ornate crosses in our sanctuaries and attach them to our steeples. All of this
would have been unthinkable in the first century. So terrible was crucifixion that the
word was not even spoken in polite company. If we want a modern counterpart, we should
hang a picture of a gas chamber in front of our sanctuary. Or put a hangman’s noose
center stage in the auditorium. Or perhaps we can have a banner with an electric chair
picturing a man dying in agony – a black cloth covering his face covered, smoke
coming from his head. The very thought sickens us.
The Cross Either Divides or Unites Us and…
Secondly, The Wisdom of Man Never Leads To God (1:19-24)
Man’s Plight (vv. 19-21)
“For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the
wise, And bring to nothing the under-standing of the prudent. (20) Where is the wise?
Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? (21) For since, in the wisdom of God,
the world through wisdom did not know God
Paul pictures rather clearly where worldly
wisdom leads in Romans 1:18-23, “For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who
suppress the truth in unrighteousness, (19) because what may be known of God is
manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. (20) For since the creation of the world His invisible
attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His
eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, (21) because, although they knew God, they did not
glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became
futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (22) Professing to be wise, they became fools, (23) and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and
birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.”
There is no such thing as man moving
upward. These verses contradict the hypothesis of evolution. Man is not improving
physically, morally, intellectually, or spiritually. The pull is downward. Of course this
contradicts all the anthologies of religion that start with man in a very primitive
condition as a caveman with very little intellectual qualities and move him up
intellectually and begin moving him toward God. This is absolute error. Man is moving away
from God, and right now the world is no closer to God than at any time in its past. The
fact of the matter is that every primitive tribe has a tradition that way back in the
beginning their ancestors knew God. Dr. Vincent in “Word Studies in the New
Testament” says, “I think it may be proved from facts that any given people, down
to the lowest savages, has at any period of its life known far more than it has done:
known quite enough to have enabled it to have got on comfortably, thriven and developed,
if it had only done what no man does, all that it knew it ought to do and could do.”
No people have ever lived up to the light that they have had. Although they had a
knowledge of God, they moved away from Him. The wisdom of this world does not lead
naturally to a knowledge of God. Men are not saved by what they know but by whom they
believe (1Tim 1:12)
God’s
Solution (vv. 21b-24)
“For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through
wisdom did not know God, …it pleased God through the foolishness of the message
preached to save those who believe. (22) For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; (23) but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolish-ness, (24) but to those who are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
To the Jews the cross was a stumbling block
(lit. skandalon) a complete scandal because
according to Deut 21:23 “cursed is everyone who hangs upon a tree.” The Jews
stumbled over the cross because it revealed Jesus as a different kind of Messiah than they
were looking for. They wanted a Messiah who would marshal an army and defeat the Romans.
Dying on a cross did not look like success or power. It looked like defeat and failure and
they kept stumbling over it.
The Greeks depended on wisdom. Reason tells us
that babies are not born to virgins. Reason tells us that an all powerful god does not
allow himself to be crucified. Reason tells us that dead men don’t come back to life
after three days. None of that makes any sense. So to the Greeks the core of Christian
beliefs looked like foolishness.
Jews looked for the dramatic, miraculous
confirmation. The Greeks looked for the speculative philosophical proof.
The
Wisdom of Man never Leads to God and…
Third, The Wisdom of Man is never As Wise As God (v.
25)
“Because the foolishness of
God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”
Paul is simply saying, if it where possible
for God to be foolish (and it is not) He would still be wiser than man’s greatest
wisdom. And if it were possible for God to be weak (and it is not) He would still be
stronger than the greatest strength that men could muster. God’s power is not man’s
power but it is available to men. It is not of man, but is offered to man.
It is the power of deliverance from sin, and it possible through the power of foolishness
of the preaching of the cross.
Conclusion
George MacLeod wrote a poem that helps put
the Cross into perspective:
“I simply argue that the cross be raised again
at the center of the market place
as well as on the steeple of the church,
I am
recovering the claim that
Jesus was not crucified in a
cathedral
between two candles:
But on a cross between two
thieves;
on a town garbage heap;
At a
crossroad of politics so cosmopolitan
that they had to write His title
in Hebrew and in Latin and in
Greek...
and thieves curse and soldiers
gamble.
and that is what He died about,
And that is where Christ's men
ought to be
and what church people ought to
shout.”
[George MacLeod. Focal Point. (Jan – March 1981)]